The Anniversary: The 5 Best Moments on Frasier

It was only four months after Sam Malone shut the lights off at Cheers that one of its characters uprooted his life in Boston and moved to pursue a career in radio psychiatry. Twenty years ago this week, Frasier aired its series premiere, with Kelsey Grammer reprising his role as Dr. Frasier Crane, this time inhabiting snooty wine clubs and the KACL radio station in Seattle instead of the familiar bar in Boston. It's safe to say that for some, Frasier was a serviceable but ultimately forgettable show. But for many, Frasier, at its best, was a sitcom that subverted the more rote primetime television tropes, rarely bowing to empty sitcom clichés and the easy cynicism of gendered relationship tension (i.e., the lazy husband and the nagging wife). In many ways, the show had more in common with theater. Its best episodes were Shakespearian, with jokes emanating from staging cues and pseudo-soliloquies, with dramatic tension and emotional responses barreling toward a cacophonous climax. So, in honor of the 20th anniversary of Frasier, which gave us Seattle's most lovable fictional snob, here are five of the best episodes from its run.

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"The Ski Lodge" (Season 5, Episode 14)

One of the finest examples of how the show played like theater as opposed to a traditional sitcom, "The Ski Lodge" finds Frasier on a weekend getaway with Niles, Daphne, her swimsuit-model friend Anne, and a gay ski instructor. The beauty of the episode is in its set; the majority of the episode is confined to the ski cabin, lending claustrophobic tension to the misconstrued romantic intentions of each character and resulting in a quick-witted comedy of errors. It's a superbly paced episode with characters dashing in and out of doors in secret, a wonderful bit of comedy that relies on location and timing rather than overt punchlines.

"Chess Pains" (Season 3, Episode 18)

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One of the shows most reliable sources of comedy was the relationship between Frasier and his father Martin, playing on the idea of books smarts versus street smarts. "Chess Pains" has Martin continually beating Frasier at a game of chess. Strokes of broad comedy are underscored by real emotional heft in the competitive but loving father-son relationship.

"The Matchmaker" (Season 2, Episode 3)

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The best episodes of Frasier took a simple bit of miscommunication and then piled on the misunderstandings. In "The Matchmaker," Frasier invites fellow colleague Tom over for dinner, thinking him an acceptable match for Daphne. Frasier misreads Tom's eagerness, though, as it's him that Tom is truly pining for. The result is an episode of missed connections and false assumptions, a lighthearted look at misplaced affection with fast, crackling dialogue.

"Moon Dance" (Season 3, Episode 13)

When Niles must attend an extravagant ball, Daphne sets out to teach him how to dance. When his date falls through, he invites Daphne along instead. Early seasons of Frasier benefited from the tension of Niles's lust for Daphne, and "Moon Dance" is the perfect balance of heartache and humor. The chemistry between Niles and Daphne in this episode is the real highlight, even as the audience (and Niles) come to realize that the romantic feelings have been, as is often the case on Frasier, misconstrued.

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"My Coffee with Niles" (Season 1, Episode 24)

Styled after My Dinner with Andre, the season-one finale of Frasier was centered on a single question from Niles to his brother: "Are you happy?" What follows is an examination of Frasier's first year in Seattle, and a moving rumination on many of the themes that would pervade through every season of the show: sibling rivalry, failed romantic relationships, the fear of starting over, and the inevitability of old age and death, all explored with affection, solemnity, and, naturally, humor.